Ben Carson on Drugs

Marijuana for medical use, but not for recreational use

Medical use of marijuana in compassionate cases has been proven to be useful, but recognize that marijuana is what is known as a gateway drug--
a starter for people who move on to heavier duty drugs. I don't think this is something we really want for our society.

Marijuana for medical use ok, but not recreational use

a starter for people who move on to heavier duty drugs. I don't think this is something we really want for our society.
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Source: Fox News, "Talk about ramifications"
, Jan 2, 2014

Religion kept me away from 1960s sex and drugs

Plenty of hippies and flower children around me smoke pot, used illicit drugs, and engaged in free love as part of that utopian dream.

Because of my love of God and my religious upbringing, I didn't become involved in sex or drugs, but I still
identified strongly with the antiwar protesters and revolutionaries. I was quite unhappy when McGovern was soundly defeated by Nixon in 1972. I was a senior in college at the time and starting to think more about medical school than social justice.
[At Yale in the late 1960s], I was proud to see groups such as the Black Panthers standing up to brutal police tactics, and though I never joined any radical student organizations, I kept abreast of the activities of the Students for a Democratic Society
(SDS), the Weathermen, and other groups willing to use aggressive tactics to accomplish "social justice."

I voted for George McGovern enthusiastically along with multitudes of young people, all of us looking forward to a utopian world of peace & love.

Reducing blood alcohol limit to .02 reduces drunk driving

An example of how responsible policies can change a society's behavior is found in Sweden, where they decided in the 1990s that their nation's incidence of drunk driving was too high. They changed the legally tolerated blood-alcohol limit from 0.05 to
0.02 (in the US, the average tolerated blood-alcohol level is 0.08--4 times higher than that in Sweden) and enforced severe penalties for drunk driving, including mandatory jail time, astronomical fines, and confiscation of one's vehicle. As a result,
there was a dramatic decline in alcohol-related traffic accidents and fatalities. The behavioral changes are so enculturated that hardly anyone even considers driving if they have consumed a single can of beer. This shows that people respond to
appropriate legislative changes and that there is still great potential for our nation to use government in a responsible and uplifting manner that will not break the bank and that will encourage the development of responsible citizens.